The more I read about food additives, the more my convictions to feed my family natural, organic food is confirmed. Just yesterday, my daughter brought home tons of junk Valentine’s Day candy from school. At first, she wanted to eat it, but then we had a talk about the candy’s contents. By the time her father got home, she was explaining to him why the candy was bad, and as always, we offered to trade her the junk candy for organic sweets.

In the past, I have written about how food additives have been linked to hyperactivity in children. Recently, there has been more discussion on the harmful effects of food additives. Here’s a round up of articles I have lately come across on the subject:

• Chemical Food Additives – Are They Slowly Killing Our Children?

Some children are more sensitive to food chemicals and display immediate effects soon after ingestion of additives, colours in particular. In small amounts additives are not harmful. Effects are dose related and, tragically, dose for weight, children are consuming several times more additives than the acceptable daily intake (ADI)…The mixtures of the additives had a much more potent effect on nerve cells than each additive on its own. The effect on cells was up to four times greater when Brilliant Blue and MSG were combined, and up to seven times greater when Quinoline Yellow and Aspartame were combined…Risk of toxic additives, in isolation or in combination, is evidently most high among infants and children. Age is an important susceptibility factor, with infants and young children being most vulnerable to chemical carcinogens. Scientific risk assessment data suggests that infants (newborns) have a limited capability to detoxify due to premature development of the liver and drug-metabolising enzymes, furthermore their extremely small body weight may provoke toxicity…The fact that young children have higher nutritional requirements, smaller body masses and their diet is less varied than those of adults suggests that they may have the greatest susceptibility to toxic effects. For example, their soft drink and dairy consumption alone may be as much as 16 times greater than that of adults.

• Processed Meats are Too Dangerous for Human Consumption Says World Cancer Research Fund

The review says that processed meats are too dangerous for human consumption. Practically all red meat used in frozen prepared meals was said to be unsafe as well as other processed meats including bacon, sausage and hot dogs. The World Cancer Research Fund claims the link to cancer is through the carcinogenic ingredient known as sodium nitrite, which is used in the production of all such products to make the color more attractive to consumers.

• Rumsfield the Aspartame Poisoner

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• Aspartame Poisoning From Chewing Gum

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Image credit: Knowledge Driven Revolution